2) Humans are clearing trees in the Amazon for farming land. Since the Amazonian tree ants does not live in any other tree but the Hirtella physophora, with humans cutting down so many trees, the population of this tree will decrease. With the Hirtella physophora decreasing, the population will also decrease since they only use the Hirtella physophora as their home.
3a) The plants and ants have a symbiotic relationship is mutualism. The plant provides the ants with food, shelter and materials to build the trap to capture their prey. With the help of their traps and predation, the ants defend the plant from other insects and parasitic plants.
The insects also harvest a specific type of fungi that help them capture their prey. This is a commensalism relationship whereby the insects make use of the fungi to trap prey while the fungi do not gain anything from this.
The insects preying on other animals are a form of predator-prey relationship.
b) Another example of mutualism is the clownfish and the sea anemone. The territorial fish protects the anemone from anemone-eating fish, and in turn the stinging tentacles of the anemone protect the clownfish from its predators.
Another example of commensalism is the remora and the shark. The remora sticks itself onto the the shark and gets a free ride, it also eats the scraps of meat that fall out of the shark when it eats. In return, the shark does not benefit from the remora but the remora does not harm it.
Another example of predator-prey relationship is the lion and the zebra whereby the zebra is the prey and the lion is the predator.
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